Into the Night Series: Volume 2: Do You Love Me?
by DIAStrio
Summary: The much awaited second installment of the Into the Night Series! Angel's back, gasp! The Scoobies aren't happy who can blame them? And Buffy isn't sure now that's a shock. And there's no way everyone can end up with everything they want by the end of it.


**Warning: This is part of the _Into the Night Series_! The story(ies) you need to read before you start this one are:**

Volume 1: Love Hurts 

Ok, usual stuff: We don't own them, which is a shame because if we did, most of the characters would have been much happier at the end of the series. Anyway, we don't begrudge Joss his fame or riches (not _too _badly, anyway.)

Sarah and I are pretty proud of this fic—we spent a lot of effort piecing together the storyline. Sarah deserves most of the credit for the ending. I originally had a completely different one written, and she came up with an idea that was way better. So we end up with the same result, we just get there a little differently. Warning: if you are an avid fan of Angel, this might not be your favorite fic. At the beginning this was an excuse for some Angel bashing, but about half way through writing this I started actually watching "Angel" the TV series, and I loved it, to my surprise. So I rewrote several parts, because I just couldn't justify portraying him as some random mindless evil guy. The writers of the TV show gave him depth and a great character arc, and I have every intention of respecting that, even if I do end it abruptly and painfully.

If you love it, tell your friends, give us a review if you feel like it. If you don't, then tell your friends that too, and send us a flame. But I beg you, if you do hate it, give us some _constructive_ criticism. I don't mind creative insults or suggestions, but I _do_ mind getting blasted by someone who has the grammatical abilities of a sunflower. So think before you write, please.

So, sit back, relax, and have fun reading this. The entire point of these things is to get lost in a world far removed from your own, with characters and situations you can enjoy. We hope that through this fic we provide you with a small escape into the Buffy universe for a while. We certainly had fun writing it, and we hope that's reflected in its quality. Cheers!

Ivy

**Previously in the "Into the Night Series"…**

(From Volume 1: Love Hurts)

Giles got dressed and decided to take the long and scenic way to the Bronze. He headed off down a random street, humming, not noticing a lot around him. Suddenly a tall, dark figure passing the alleyway in front of him caught the corner of his eye.

He stood rooted to the spot. He couldn't mistake the figure. It was the one that had haunted his every nightmare for the past three years. "Angel."

The tall vampire disappeared behind some bushes.

Giles didn't hesitate any longer. He sprinted down the street, desperate to find what he knew would be the object of the vampire's desire. Buffy.

Suddenly, the tall figure came out from behind some bushes and tapped Buffy on the shoulder. Spike stopped, watching. Buffy jumped and turned around.

"…Angel?"

**Do You Love Me?**

_dIaS_

Xander looked around the crowded dance floor, feeling oddly removed from the giddy revelers around him. He stood on tiptoe, craning his neck around to find Anya, who'd left his side a few minutes ago to grab a drink from the bar. He couldn't blame her. He'd broken down and had his first beer shortly after he, Anya, Willow and Tara had stumbled into the Bronze earlier that evening. They had been desperate for some human contact outside of their normal realm of nightmares. The normality of the drunken dancers at the Bronze was supposed to cheer them up, but instead the four friends found themselves feeling alienated by the happiness around them. They were in no mood for a party. Xander finally spotted Anya at the bar, along with Willow and Tara. All three of the girls were deep into their drinks, and Xander had a sneaking suspicion that this was far from their last round. He headed over, shouldering people out of his way as they invaded his personal space, trying to avoid catching anyone's eye.

"Hey gals," he greeted with mock enthusiasm, swinging himself onto the bar stool next to Tara. All three spared him a wane smile before returning their attention to their drinks. Xander waited for a moment and then tried again. "Where's the Dawnster?"

This, at least, provoked a response. Willow raised her head, her red curls reflecting the dim light of the club. "She's at Janice's house for the weekend. I didn't…I didn't think that she'd wanna be around, with all the…the gloominess of us. We won't be much fun for a while, and I didn't think that Buffy would wanna have to handle Dawn. Not that Dawn's a pain! Well, she kinda is, but—" Tara put a hand on Willow's shoulder. "Honey, you're babbling." Xander smiled at her sympathetically. He glanced around, suddenly noticing the total absence of blonde slayer in the room.

"Speak of the Buffster, where'd she get off to? Wasn't she gonna drag Giles over here so we could all commiserate?"

This time it was Anya who spoke up, finally tearing her attention away from the bottom of the glass of her cosmopolitan. "I don't think she's coming. She's probably with Spike." Xander blinked and looked over at her. "_What?_" Anya leaned forward to look at him around Willow and Tara. "Spike. If I were her and I got all injured and Spike saved me, I'd be giving him lots of happies right now to pay him back."

Tara looked over at Anya and raised an eyebrow. "Happies?"

Anya nodded proudly. "It's called tact! Xander told me that sometimes you have to replace words that people don't like to hear with something less offensive! And he's right! The customers buy much more when I pretend I'm interested in their pathetic little love lives!"

Xander managed a weak smile. "That's my girl!" He looked around again. They were the most miserable looking people in a four-mile radius. He sighed, and promptly got up. "I'm gonna dance." The girls nodded. Anya signaled to the bar tender for another drink. Xander danced his way across the floor, heading for the back. He needed some fresh air. As he finally gained the relative quiet of the back parking lot, Xander sighed and leaned against the building. He figured he was probably in some sort of semi-coma. In between Buffy's admission of being in heaven when that demon turned them all into "Sunnydale: Broadway", Willow going into overkill to try and make up for it, and this whole thing with Buffy getting stabbed on patrol, his system was starting to shut down and ignore anything that made it harder for him to think. Which included, last he checked, everything. He stared despondently into the night, trying to avoid actually concentrating on anything, but to his dismay his brain kept bringing his eyes back to a couple standing near the end of the street. He finally gave in and casually observed them, and he registered an eerily familiar mental warning as a small, disgruntled bell began to sound in the back of his mind. He squinted, and saw the girl's blonde hair, and the man's dark, brooding complexion. Less than five seconds later, he was running back into the Bronze, wishing he'd remembered to bring the crossbow. "Guys! Guys! It's Angel!"

Giles couldn't remember the last time he'd run so fast, frantic retreats from deadly monsters not withstanding. He flew down one street and up an alley, intent on only one thing: he had to get to Buffy before Angel did. He hurtled left around the next corner and kept up his mad dash, nearly tripping over a loose trash can lid. His mind was moving even faster than his legs, whirling with thoughts and disturbing imaginings concerning why Angel was here, in Sunnydale… looking for Buffy. The small part of the ex-watcher's mind that could still think rationally at this level of physical exertion reminded him that, really, he had no proof Angel was even intending to _see_ Buffy. He ignored it. An alarmed, barely audible voice in the back of his mind was telling him that his slayer was in trouble, and that he needed to get to her as quickly as possible. That was the voice he was trusting: the same one that had told him, years before, that he'd find his beloved Jenny dead at the top of his rose-strewn stairway.

Giles sited the neon lights of the Bronze up ahead and headed around the back of the building, hoping to avoid the front entrance. As he rushed into the side alley next to the club, he didn't slow his pace, though both his lungs and his legs were demanding his brain to stop and think this through logically for a moment. His lungs and his legs got their wish, as at the end of the alley Giles ran smack into Spike, who'd been trying to lean around the corner and look into the back lot of the Bronze.

The blonde vamp let out an unmanly yelp as Giles bowled into his back, sending them both crashing to the pavement. Scrambling to his feet, Spike cursed and looked down at Giles, who was still on his stomach on the ground, wincing. "Would you bloody well watch where you're going?"

The older Brit ignored Spike's comment. He hoisted himself back to his feet, gasping for breath. "Buffy…w-where?" Spike raised an eyebrow and jerked his thumb down the street. "Right over there, moping about all by her lonesome." He glanced in Buffy's direction, and then did a double take, squinting at the tall figure that had appeared next to her. "Hang on…" He looked back at Giles, waiting for clarification, only to find himself talking to thin air. The ex-watcher was sprinting down the street again, straight towards Buffy and her companion. "Bugger." Without another thought, Spike tore off after him.

It was a credit to the Scooby Gang's many long years of teamwork that, with no former planning, they all got to Buffy and Angel at exactly the same moment. Just as Giles and Spike skidded to a stop in front of the bewildered couple, Xander and the others screeched to a halt at the curb, piling out of Xander's beat-up car. In seconds, Angel was surrounded, effectively cut off from Buffy by her grim-faced friends. Spike hung back at the edge of the group, and Giles stood doubled over at the waste, gasping, trying to bring oxygen into his taxed system. Xander glanced over at his friend, keeping his body turned towards Angel. "You OK, G-man?"

Giles, breathing more or less under his control again, straightened up and moved to stand directly in between Angel and Buffy. "Don't call me that, Xander." He turned his attention to Angel. "Now what do you think you're doing here?"

Finally, Buffy managed to collect her completely tangled thoughts and form a semi-coherent sentence. "What…what's going on, you guys?" She shook her head, trying once again to clear it. Suddenly the events of the last few minutes snapped back into place, and she glared at her friends angrily. "What do you think you're doing? Get away from him!"

She shouldered past Giles and Xander, who both tried to get in her way, and ignored Willow's hesitant voice. "Uh, Buffy…you sure that's a good idea?"

Angel glanced around uncertainly, his dark eyes taking in the unhappy faces around him before turning back to Buffy. "Uh, hi…look, if this is a bad time, I can just…" he made a vague gesture, his voice trailing off. Buffy stared at him for several seconds, and then brought him into a crushing embrace. When she let go, she was grinning from ear to ear. "What do you mean, a bad time? How are you? What are you doing here?"

"Uh…"Angel looked around again. It wasn't that he was worried about them all ganging up on him, physically. In a down and out fight, he could win. It was the emotional warfare going on that unnerved him. He was losing an invisible battle of wills to an old watcher, a red head witch and her girlfriend, and a guy who was dating an ex-vengeance demon. He was sure, on some basic level, that someone the Powers That Be proclaimed as a champion should be able to handle a couple of social outcasts. But he knew better—this was no ordinary bunch of outcasts. They were the Scooby Gang, and that was an entirely different ball game.

He knew what he was planning was probably a bad idea. He knew that he was the strongest, smartest, and most experienced, not to mention the most good-looking undead warrior here. Well, that last part was solely based on Cordelia's comments, but he tended to take her word when it came to that sort of thing. Even with all that going for him, Angel seriously doubted his ability to pull this off without getting himself staked…or worse, tied down and lectured. He took a deep breath, more for the therapeutic movement than any need for oxygen, and played his mental trump card. More than anything, he had a soul, and that's why he was doing this. He looked at Buffy one more time, letting her blue-gray eyes and bright blonde hair fill his vision for a moment. Then he sprinted towards her, knocked her out with one smooth punch, and took off running, carrying her limp form across his shoulders.

By the time Buffy managed to struggle out of the gray fog still clouding her mind, she'd been put down…somewhere. Eyes still closed, she gently moved her stiff limbs, running up a mental checklist of the damage. Arms? Fine. Legs? Cramped, but only because they were twisted under her. Chest? Stomach? She tried an experimental ab flex. All in working order. Head? She moved it to the side, just barely. Her jaw exploded in pain. Starbursts danced across the backdrop of her eyelids, and she stifled a gasp. How the heck had he managed to dislocate her jaw with only one punch? She took a deep breath and forced herself to concentrate. OK, so she knew it was dislocated. If she could gently move it back into position, she'd be able to use it again with minimal pain. That is, right after the agony that moving it back into place would cause died down.

The tiny voice in the back of her mind that sounded suspiciously like Giles reminded her that she had no idea where she was, or who was with her. She had no idea why Angel was doing this, why he was here, or where in the Sam Hill she even was. She should pretend to still be asleep until she could determine through sounds and sensations her exact surroundings. That way she would have the element of surprise, and time to think. Her jaw throbbed again. She knew that she'd never be able to concentrate on a single thing until she got it back into place.

Silently apologizing to Giles, wherever he was, Buffy cracked her eyes open. She blinked several times, her eyes struggling to focus on the blurry shadows around her. Suddenly, as if someone had flicked a power switch in her brain, the fire-ravaged room around her jumped into focus. Buffy gasped, ignoring the pain in her jaw. Her hand came up to her face automatically, and she barely felt the intense pain of her jawbone snapping back into place. She was still staring at the room around her. Her voice came out as a whispered plea to someone, anyone who could get her out of this inferno-scarred room of old memories and nightmares. "Oh God, please…not again."

"Oh God, please…not again." The whispered prayer was out of Giles's mouth before he could stop it. He looked around to make sure no one else had heard it. No one had. Willow was hunched over her laptop at his desk, frantically searching for building plans, trying to compile a list of likely locations Angel would take Buffy. Xander and Anya were moving between the couch and the bookshelves, piling up resources. It was more busywork than anything. Giles hadn't been able to tell them what to look for. Spike wasn't back yet. He'd taken off after Angel and Buffy, and they hadn't seen him since. Giles knew he hadn't found anything. He would've stormed back in for weapons if he knew where Buffy was. They had no idea what was going on, and he hated it with every molecule in his being.

Tara leaned against the doorframe between the living room, where the others were, and the kitchen, where Giles stood slumped against the counter. He'd taken a break from reading over Willow's shoulder to make them all some tea. The pretty blonde witch had the phone pressed against her ear. She was the only one doing anything really constructive, and she knew the others were counting on her for results. She listened to the phone ring, silently begging every goddess she could remember off-hand that someone would pick up on the other end. This was their best shot…their only shot. She breathed a sigh of relief at the click that signaled someone picking up. The cheery voice on the other end unnerved her just a bit. "Hey, this is Angel Investigations, Lorne speaking. What can we do for ya, honey?"

Tara blinked. She didn't recognize the name from any of the stories Willow had told her about Angel…but it made sense that he'd have people working for him, right? But how in the world could he know she was a girl before she even opened her mouth? She tried to keep the stutter from escaping, but she was feeling insecure, and it just couldn't be helped. "Ah…h-hello?"

"Hi doll. What can we do for you? Monster troubles? Maybe some little pixy pests you need taken care of?"

Tara took a deep breath, collected her thoughts and tried to stop his cheerful babble. "Uh, no, I'm uh…I'm Tara Bennet. I-I live in Sunnydale…"

"Sunnydale? Hey, that's a little out of the way, but if you don't mind paying for the traveling cost we can still—"

"No! No, I-I'm not a customer. I…well, i-is Wesley there? W-Wesley Windam-Price? I-I think he's the one who'd understand this best…" She looked over at Giles as she said this, and he nodded at her. Wesley would at least understand the history, even if he didn't necessarily get along with all of them. There was a long pause at the other end of the line, and when Lorne's voice finally responded, most of the chipper attitude had left it.

"Ah…yeah, well…Look, I'm sorry to tell you this but Wesley is…well, no longer a member of this staff. He head some, ah…differences of opinion with our management."

Tara's brow crinkled. "Oh." She placed her hand over the speaker and turned to Giles again. "He says that Wesley doesn't work there anymore." Giles's eyebrows shot up at this, and Willow's head jerked away from her computer screen to stare at Tara. "_What?_" Tara shrugged. "That's what he said. What should I do?"

Giles and Willow shared a look, and Willow glanced over at Xander before nodding ascent to Giles's unspoken question. He turned to look back at Tara. "Ask him if Cordelia Chase is available."

Tara nodded and removed her hand from the speaker. "Sorry about that…is…is Cordelia there? Cordelia Chase?"

There was another heavy-laden silence before Lorne spoke again, this time with a drawn-out sigh lacing the edges of his words. "Nah, she isn't, doll, but if she was I'm sure she'd be just tickled green to here from ya." He paused again, and Tara got the distinct impression he was weighing his next words. "Look, I get the feeling you're an old pal of theirs, right? I don't know much about their Sunnydale days, but I know that when a pretty little gal like you calls them up with doomsay in your voice, there's gotta be somethin' brewin'. Am I right?"

Tara blinked again. She considered a moment, debating on how much to tell him. Really, they didn't even know this guy, whoever, or _whatever_ he was. But if Wesley wasn't there, and Cordelia wasn't, then this Lorne would have to be the next best thing. They needed answers, _now_, and she knew that this was the only place they were going to get them.

For just one moment, Tara considered hanging up and just finding Angel on their own, information or no information. But then her gaze strayed to Willow, once again hunched over the computer screen. Her normally vibrant red hair was stringy around her pale face, and her eyes were sunk in from lack of sleep. Tara made a decision. If not for Buffy, than for her friends, who wouldn't rest until they found their Slayer. She took a deep breath, and then turned back to her conversation with Lorne, no stuttering included. "You're right. Listen, we need to talk, I think…it's about Angel."

The silence on the other end of the line was extremely telling. Finally, Lorne's voice came on. The dull, sadness-roughened tone was barely recognizable as the same one that had greeted her so cheerily only minutes before. "Yeah. Yeah, I figured…Alright. I give. But you never heard this from me, all right?"

Tara gave a soft smile, and went to sit on the arm of the couch. "I'm listening."

**...TBC in Chapter 2! **

**Alright, we promised ourselves that we weren't going to divide this story into chapters, but it couldn't be helped. This story arc is just too long for one big block. Rest assured, the next chapter is on it's way, and it's even longer than this one. Bear with us as we get it posted! And hey, while you're waiting, how about a review?**


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